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"id": 964525,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Seme, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr.) James Nyikal",
"speaker": {
"id": 434,
"legal_name": "James Nyikal",
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"content": "It establishes structures that we need. There is no way you will do regulations and control, if there are no structures that enforce people and create responsibilities that ensure that the law is complied with. The Gaming Authority and the Board are in place and that is key. If you are going to have this, it will have regulation and control. There has to be people who take responsibility. I must congratulate the Committee for the work they did on this. The only issue I can say is that the Board to a large extent comprises Government officers. It is important to have a balance between Government officials and the public stakeholders. Government officials can be manipulated. Public stakeholders are more likely to resist the manipulation particularly if it comes from the State. This Bill gives clearly the functions of this Act. Again, it is quite clear what they are supposed to do – the policy and so on. It goes on to state fairly clearly the areas that need to be controlled. It states clearly that all forms of gambling whether it is national lottery, book making, public lottery, online gambling…Online gaming is what has made it extremely necessary to repeal the old Act of 1966. The facilities that we use for online gambling are available to everybody. There has been argument that children cannot have these facilities. All our children have telephones. Online gaming that has been brought in is extremely important. It is more dangerous and it needs better control. It looks at the particulars that will be involved because this is something that somebody sitting in a corner alone can be gambling the whole day. Kids have been known –and even adults – to gamble monies that were for family use. If you talk to mothers they will tell you how fathers or husbands have gambled family resources – they have sold everything. They do not have to go outside the house. They are just sitting there and gambling away everything. It is important that it has been brought in place. I also support the establishment of a Fund so that the proceeds of gambling can go to some of the uses that are of social benefit to the people, not just rehabilitation of people involved. It is a bit funny that you license something and you know it is going to hurt people then you put in place a process for looking after people that you have hurt. Anyway, that is the balance that we will have. I think we should go farther. Some of the effects may not be directly noticed. They may be seen as healthy funds. I think we may even use some of these funds as we are using in the Sports Fund to apply it to our health services. Again, supporting sports and another important thing we can use, particularly in the area of sports, a lot of our athletes, not the ones that hit the big leagues, the ones who hit the big leagues are okay. They look after themselves. However, there are some who have done relatively well locally. At the end of their lives, they live miserable lives. I think it will go a long way if you have a Fund like this that can support them. It will be a good outcome from an area where we are even worried whether it is in overall not hurting people. I also like the way it has said on the distribution of the funds that will arise, that will go to the core function or object of the gaming if it is a charitable organisation, fine. Then, the 25 to 45 per cent we can look at. I think the provision of that and those limitations are important. Finally, it has put in place a Gaming Appeals tribunal. It is clear there will be a lot of issues in the area of gambling. To have a tribunal which will sought out issues instead of lengthy court cases is a good approach that this Bill has brought. With that, I support."
}